Dan joined Cisco five years ago and leads the Manufacturing & Energy Industry Sector marketing practice for the Americas.

He focuses on understanding the business needs of Cisco customers and drives engagements that introduce business transforming concepts to lines of business managers and executives. Because of his industry knowledge and contributions, Dan was recently recognized as the “Industry Leader of the Year” by GDS International at the 2012 Next Generation Manufacturing Summit and also received the President’s Award at the 2012 Manufacturing Leadership Summit.

Thanks to his past experience, Dan has an intimate understanding of customer business needs. He has a Six Sigma black belt and held roles in market and customer operations as well as product development. Dan has also held sales, strategy and marketing positions for manufacturing, financial and government institutions.

Dan has degrees in Sociology with an emphasis in Criminal Justice from Northern Illinois University and a Masters of Business Administration from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.

We’re looking forward to Dan’s insights and contributions to this Manufacturing blog.

Helder Antunes is Managing Director, Smart Connected Vehicle, CIG . He is a 15-year Cisco veteran with a background in both network security and the automotive industry.

Helder is currently working closely with all the global automobile manufacturers, in order to explore a partnership between Cisco and the OEMs in defining the next generation Smart Connected Vehicle platform, a key initiative within Cisco’s “Internet of Things” strategy.
Outside of Cisco, Antunes is also a General Partner at Pereira Ventures and a counselor to the Regional Government of the Azores, Portugal.

Helder is no stranger to the cutting edge of the automotive industry. He raced cars for many years and designed some of the early data acquisition systems for race cars. On a personal level, Helder was born on the island of Terceira (Azores, Portuguese Territory) in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and traveled to Mozambique, Macau, and other former Portuguese colonies before his family settled in Rhode Island.

President Aníbal Cavaco Silva, Cisco CEO John Chambers, and Antunes at Cisco HQ, during the 2011 Portuguese Presidential Visit to California.

He has been published in many industry publications on Automotive and other topics including:

The Internet of Everything is the idea that we can start connecting everything around us. Connections between people, things, and machines to produce intelligent data will lead the way we experience life. Therefore, cars and vehicles can be connected to provide a richer and more valuable driving experience. How will Cisco fall into this mix? Cisco’s intelligent network can provide the underlying platform to host innovation.

Cisco and NXP announced today an investment in Cohda Wireless to advance intelligent transport systems and car-to-x communication. Cisco’s intelligent network will allow vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to pedestrian connections to provide a safer environment and optimize the driving experience. Your car is already filled with digital devices. Imagine what can happen if those devices; such as sensors, navigation, radio, or even lights become connected to the environment around you. Your navigation might one day lead you directly into an empty parking spot. Cisco has already begun this vision with Streetline through an app that shows real time parking in San Mateo and San Carlos. When will this technology be implemented into all cars? Perhaps it will be 2017 or even 2014. No one knows for sure, but it is obvious that the technology of tomorrow is here.

Tune into the segment below as I explain more on how Cisco plans to revolutionize the way we drive.

It is with great pleasure that I introduce another key member of IBSG’s Manufacturing Practice, Diana Huang. As a key Industry Thought Leader, Diana has had a distinguished career at Cisco to date and is currently leading the Greater China team in helping Fortune 500 CEOs address their most strategic issues—from growth strategy, global expansion, operational efficiency, and leadership development, to innovation, technology in management, corporate culture, and employee training.

Huang is an active member of the Cisco Greater China leadership team, focusing on go-to-market strategies with transformational efforts, and is also executive sponsor of the Cisco Greater China Smart Grid Virtual Team. In addition, she is a member of the Board of Trustees for the International School of Beijing, where she co-chairs the resources committee.

Huang has 19 years of management consulting and industry experience in the United States and China. Prior to joining Cisco, she was a vice president and partner at A.T. Kearney. As a strategic adviser to senior leadership, Huang led teams that assisted both Chinese and multinational companies with strategic direction, organizational transformation, and operational efficiency improvements.

Prior to consulting, Huang was a research chemist. She has written a number of papers, including “Decoding the Cisco DNA,” “Eco-City: Will China Lead the World?”, and “China’s Response to Global Meltdown.”

The United States continues to be the world’s largest manufacturing economy, employing nearly 17 million people – about 1 in 6 private sector jobs. However, the modern manufacturing industry is struggling to attract the highly skilled workers it needs for the tech-savvy, evolving role required in today’s manufacturing operations.

Historically, manufacturing jobs were thought of as mind-numbing, remedial tasks done in dark and dingy factories. This “old” perception of a manufacturing environment creates a barrier to attract new employees to the manufacturing environment we see today – clean and safe with employees managing advanced machinery that drives innovation and productivity. Cisco, together with key manufacturing organizations, such as The Manufacturing Institute, are working to educate a new generation of workers on the needs of today’s manufacturers and get them excited about this challenging, but very rewarding career.

Cisco solutions are at the forefront of this evolved role within manufacturing, especially as more companies demand efficiency and collaboration among their workforce. For example, manufacturers are constantly seeking new ways for their employees to become more productive, while streamlining their day-to-day tasks. To be more efficient and collaborative, employees must be connected to share ideas and insights. So you simply just connect them, right? If you consolidate the intellectual capital of all the workers into a central repository and give your employees access; then they can start sharing insight on how to do their jobs better and smarter. Simply put, it’s just adding non-networked people to the network. And Cisco is working with numerous manufacturing companies across the country to make this key transition needed to support the quality control and productivity improvements plants demand with the collaboration younger workers expect.

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